06-08-2010, 05:17 PM
There is a house on S. Kopua Rd Whose owner I have stopped to chat with on occasion. One time I noticed he had installed fence posts. Since I had recently been trying to install fence posts myself I was curious about how this fellow had dug the holes. Turns out he used a simple manual post hole digger to dig holes 3 feet deep. On my property the job would require a jackhammer to get 3 inches deep. I commented on this and the guy smiled ruefully and said that my soil was probably much better than his, which had been farmed on an industrial scale for almost 100 years.
I understand Jay to say that the land is capable of having good soil as long as you get past your prejudices, the most common of which has to do with quantity. I imagine other prejudices have to do with being able to plow and plant in straight lines and the desire to plant what you want rather than what grows well under the conditions. I don't know the quality of the soil on my Eden Roc property except to say there is very little of it. It is dark brown or black rather than red as I have seen elsewhere. The land in almost all of Puna has not been farmed. Volcanic soil is known to be very fertile and Puna's has not been used up, so if you can scrape enough into the low spots and learn how to work it it you might discover it is competitive with any other soil around despite being scattered over a hostile moonscape.
I understand Jay to say that the land is capable of having good soil as long as you get past your prejudices, the most common of which has to do with quantity. I imagine other prejudices have to do with being able to plow and plant in straight lines and the desire to plant what you want rather than what grows well under the conditions. I don't know the quality of the soil on my Eden Roc property except to say there is very little of it. It is dark brown or black rather than red as I have seen elsewhere. The land in almost all of Puna has not been farmed. Volcanic soil is known to be very fertile and Puna's has not been used up, so if you can scrape enough into the low spots and learn how to work it it you might discover it is competitive with any other soil around despite being scattered over a hostile moonscape.